Overview
The level 18 zon is one of the most powerful level 18 builds if built and played correctly. Not surpringly, its also one of the most expensive. The character has to balance run/walk, damage, and mana effectively as well as be accustomed to a run-and-gun strategy. However, there's virtually no character the bowa can't beat if played correctly.

Also, if you plan on using any dupes for this build, just exit my topic immediately.

Stats
There are two routes you can go for, a vita build and a glass cannon (all dex) build. I personally favor the glass cannon build, as every bit of damage can and does help at this level, and you can still maintain a decent amount of life.

It should be noted that an alternative build for this character, using Iratha's set instead of Death's Gloves/Belt/Amulet, will have different stats, and this guide reflects the Angelics/Death's Set route.

Vita build:
Strength - 30 (Possible to have more without adding too many points in)
Dexterity - 65 (Possible to have more without adding too many points in)
Vitality - Rest
Energy - None

Glass Cannon:
Strength - 30 (Possible to have more without adding too many points in)
Dexterity - Rest
Vitality - None
Energy - None

Skills:
Magic Arrow - 1
Multishot - 1
Cold Arrow - 1
Guided Arrow - 1

Jab - 1 (Not needed but I highly recommend skilling, if not put the point in Avoid)
Poison Javelin - 1
Lightning Bolt - 1

Critical Strike - 13
Dodge - 7
Avoid - 1
Penetrate - 1 (Not needed but helps your jab/throw ar out a bit, if you opt out put in Avoid)

This post was edited by ClanBK on Dec 25 2009 04:51am

Gear:
Optimal
Alternative
Poor man's choice

Weapon 1:
+3 Bow Skills 5 Socket Superior Stag Bow, 15% ED (Socketed with 20% ED 15 Max Damage Jewels or 20 Max Damage Jewels)
For the jewels here, the 20/15s will give you slightly less damage, but are about the 1/4 the price of 20 Maxers (at least on ESCL). Hits 10 fpa. You could opt to lose a jewel and throw in a nef, but its really not needed or in my opinion even worth it.

Superior 4 Socket Composite Bow, 15% ED (Socketed with 20% ED 15 Max Damage Jewels)
You achieve 9 fpa but lose a socket as well the ed and less mana per shot you would get from the +3 bow skills on a stag.

+3 Bow Skills 5 Socket Superior Stag Bow (Socketed with 4x 15 Max Damage Jewels 1x Nef Rune)
You could use 5x 15 Maxers instead but with such low bow damage you may need to make up for it with knockback.

Weapon 2:
Non-eth Rare Throwing Spears with 60%+ ED, IAS, Knockback, Increased Stack Size
I personally haven't been able to find a pair with all these mods, so I use a high damage increased stack size ones and when I need knockback I use a lower damage pair with KB on them. IAS isn't needed but a nice add.

Eth/Replenish Rare Throwing Spears with above mods
You'll get a pretty decent damage boost but at the same time find yourself hating how slow these replenish quantity. You can however have a pair of these in stash for important duels, and when they need to replenish just switch to non-eth.

Non-eth Rare Throwing Spears or War Javelins 40% ED
Lower damage but easier to find. War Javelins have a lower stack amount but still usable.

Helm:
Rare circlet with 20 FRW, % ED, Fire/Light Damage, Life, Mana, Replenish, Res, DR, MDR, 2 os (Socketed with 18-20 Max Damage Jewels)
Obviously not all mods are needed. I use a 20 FRW 25% ED 39 AR 25-45 Fire Damage 2 DR 2 MDR Circlet.

Magic circlet with 20 FRW and two of the above mods and 2 os (socketed with 15+ Max Damage Jewels)
I started off with a 2x 15 Max'd FRW/Light Damage Circlet before I upgraded. 30 ED, 10 Repl, 120 Light Damage, 30 Mana would be some ideal mods to use here.

3 Socket Mask (Socketed with 15 Max Damage Jewels)
You don't lose all that much damage but you do however lose the FRW, which is pretty essential, and the nice secondary mod.

Shield:
There's quite a few different shields that you should have stashed away, so I'm going to skip over the format for this. First, a Swordback Hold with either a 15 maxer or Eth rune in it should be used against most casters. Secondly, a Vulpine Bone Shield of Deflecting (30/20 12 DTM, aka VBSOD) with 2 os. You should actually have two of these, one socketed with maxer jewels and the other with Eth runes. Optionally you could have a third one with Ith runes if you happen to want the extra DTM. I find that the maxer shield is nice vs melee, especially chargers, and the Eth (or Ith) shield is quite useful for facing other bowas. Finally, you could also opt for a 3x Max Damage jewel large shield, which will give you more throw damage but also since it is a medium-weight shield will take away from your FRW.

Armor:
Twitchthroe (Socketed with 15-20 Max Damage Jewel)
There's really no compromise here. Its cheap and you need the IAS, and in addition to that you gain 20 stats, increased block, and FHR.

Gloves:
Death's Hand Set Gloves
Gives 30% IAS when coupled with the belt. No other compromise.

Belt:
Death's Guard Set Sash
Gives 30% IAS when coupled with the gloves as well as can't be frozen and 15 all resists. No other compromise here as well.

Boots:
Cow King's Set Geavy Boots
30 FRW, 20 Dex, and some nice fire damage. Can't be beat vs. melee.

20 FRW 40+ Tri Res Boots
I personally don't bother with these, but if you want a resist boost these could help out. Not needed IMO.

Amulet:
Angelic's Set Amulet
No competition when coupled with a ring. 75 life, 20 DTM, 10 Dex.

Ring 1:
Angelic's Set Ring
You'll need this to gain the life/dex/ar bonus from using the set. It of course gives 20 life and 6 life replenish in addition to that. Can't go wrong.

Ring 2:
Rare Ring with 30-40 Mana, 5 Dex/str, 5 Life Replenish, 10 life, Min Damage, Energy
I'm personally using a 3 Min 32 Mana 10 Energy 5 Life Replenish ring. AR is a nice bonus too, but in no way is it neccessary.

None

40 mana ring
Its definitely the most important mod on the ring, so if you can't find a ring with those other mods, make sure it at least has a decent amount of mana.

Charms:
Grand Charms - For your grand charms, you're going to want a mixture of Max/Ar/Frw, Max/Ar/Dex, and Max/Ar/Life. You're going to have 50 FRW coming from your gear already, so you don't need that many FRW gcs to get by. I personally use 2x giving me 64 FRW total, with the ability to add in more if I feel I need it. I haven't really need to do so however, but depending on your play style you may want to. For dexterity GCs, I use two for the little extra damage boost. Any more and I feel I'd be sacrificing too much life. Finally, I use 4x Max/AR/Life grand charms. Depending on how your mana is, you may even want to use five, but I feel more comfortable with 4.

Max stats on these stated mods:
6 Max Damage
48 AR
7 FRW (doesn't vary)
6 Dexterity
20 Life

Small Charms - Your small charms are going to mean a lot to this build, as they're a big source of mana. Obviously, if you're running out of mana after a handful of shots, you're not going to be very effective. This is personally why I'd advise not to bother with this build if you aren't able to obtain at the very least, 14-15 Life/5-7 Mana small charms. Optimally you're going to want 15 Life/7 Mana small charms, but they get quite expensive. At the moment I have 7x 15/7s in my inventory, and 9x 15/6s. You could also throw in one or two 15 Life/7 x resist small charms if you find yourself needing additional resist and are able to sacrifice the mana.


This post was edited by ClanBK on Dec 25 2009 04:51am

Dueling Strategies:
I'm not going to go too in-depth here, but I'll try to address some main points. This is probably going to be a tl;dr wall of text, but you might find it useful if you're not used to bowas, especially at lvl 18.

Generally, your mana pool isn't going to last the whole duel. Your javs are going to be just as important against some characters as your bow. Obviously, there are cons to using your javs as opposed to your bow, namely the fact that they don't track your opponent and the fact that they use AR. A good zon knows when to use her javs effectively, however. The great thing about the javs is that at this level you have plenty of AR to still get hits, and while you're throwing them you're not using up any mana, meaning you're regening mana to be able to use your bow again. There's also of course the obvious fact that you have block, which is quite big vs other zons/chargers/bf sins/etc and the occasional melee that catches up with you.

I also see two skills that are largely overlooked by opponents: Jab and Lightning Bolt. You're not going to always want to use jab obviously, as getting up close for melee attacks is not what this build is designed for. However, it is an excellent way to occasional lay damage into casters and getting Open Wounds on them. It also happens to be very useful against chargers (pure chargers, don't try it vs. charge/zeal hybrids). Lightning Bolt's great appeal is that it hits 100% of the time (assuming you aim it right of course). Critical Strike will double its damage as well, meaning character with low light res (quite common at this level) can be fried up quite nicely with it. It also transfers knockback, which helps an amazing amount vs. chargers (hybrids included), so make sure you have your knockback javs equipped when dueling them.

Finally, a big part of this build is being able to aim well and dodge missiles effectively. A lot of practice can really help you out here, especially in ZvZ, which happens to be quite fun at this level.

I'm going to leave you a video of my bowa vs a bone necro (from the nec's perspective, I can't film but gobb and very gds). Hope you guys find this helpful and informative and I would love to see more 18s pop up on ESCL as well as other realms. Feel free to PM me or post any questions you may have.



This post was edited by ClanBK on Dec 25 2009 04:51am

four

how do you do against chargers?
the nec in the video shouldn't nl the bowa but throw spears in front of her path. else he will never kill her.

€: why don't you jab the nec when he's close? is throw better?

This post was edited by Perserker[PvP] on Dec 25 2009 05:12am

Quite well. Obviously being chargers they still get the occasional 1 hit kill, but in general lb + kb does very well against them, especially if they don't use a res shield.

nice guide man

hmm i normally use angelics for the jewelry but some guy i forgot who... but i saw their zon and she was using rare 1passive/life/mana amulet with rare rings.. i wonder what works better.

have you ever tried going with rare jewelry instead of angelics?

This post was edited by rt123 on Dec 25 2009 09:11am

Nice guide, but iirc i thought that lightning bolt doesn't work with critical strike?

merry xmas :D!!

3x 20 ed 6 dex jeweled breast/light plate is an option

lower frame higher damage less mana wasted

break is trying it out soon I think



me jimmys and olis uses rare ammy and 2x rare rings ^^

This post was edited by IAmAsylum on Dec 25 2009 09:24am

why don't use shako??